The Treasury is lying
Scott Alexander correctly admonishes us not to overuse the term “liar”. Nonetheless, I can’t resist using that term here, as today’s Treasury decision seems so transparently dishonest:
The U.S. Treasury Department labeled China a currency manipulator Monday after Beijing pushed down the value of its yuan in a dramatic escalation of the trade conflict between the world’s two biggest economies.
The decision, which came hours after President Donald Trump accused China of unfairly devaluing its currency, marks a reversal for Treasury: In May, it had declined to sanction China for manipulating its currency.
The U.S. has not put China on the currency blacklist since 1994.
The Treasury has a very specific set of criteria for determining whether a country is a currency manipulator. There is no question that China does not meet the Treasury’s definition. Thus the Treasury is lying today in its claim that China is a currency manipulator. Why? Why would the Treasury lie?
Here’s my theory. Trump ignored the advice of almost all his policy people in announcing another 10% tariff on China. China retaliated by allowing their currency to depreciate, as currencies normally do in that situation. Trump got angry and told Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to label China a currency manipulator. Mnuchin said, “But Mr. President, China does not meet our definition of currency manipulation.” Trump said he didn’t care, and ordered Mnuchin to lie about China’s currency policy.
Perhaps there is some other way to explain today’s announcement. But until I hear a more plausible explanation, I’m going to assume that the Treasury is lying under orders from the President.
Almost every single day the US slides further and further toward banana republic status. Today I heard some financial analysts suggests that we cannot believe what the Chinese government is saying about the trade war. I thought to myself, “And you guys believe what the US government is saying?!?!?”
We should assume that everything we hear from the US government about China, about Iran, about North Korea, about Venezuela, etc., is a lie. You say Huawei is a national security threat? Show me the evidence.
PS. Yes, this has always been a problem (Gulf of Tonkin, Iraq War, etc.), but the rot is spreading into even more areas than before. It wasn’t this bad under Obama. Treasury used to be a semi-respectable branch of the government.
PPS. And it’s going to get worse:
Mr. Coats, a former senator and longtime pillar of the Republican establishment who angered the president by providing unwelcome assessments of Russia, North Korea and other matters, told Mr. Trump last week that it was time to move on, officials said. His departure removes one of the most prominent national security officials willing to contradict the president.
Tags:
5. August 2019 at 15:25
It is quite right to say the government under Trump has no credibility, and that goes for honesty and competence.
In fact, China’s government is more honest and otherwise credible on economic matters, and frankly I hope they don’t back down. The US, and particularly Trump, needs a bloody nose. We’re bullies and we started this fight, which was wholly unnecessary, even from the perspective of trying to get China to open its markets and respect IP. There’s something called the WTO that we built where our complaints could have been addressed legally ,and certainly more fairly and effectively
Trump and his supporters embrace help from Russia so that he can win. I embrace this beating by China so we can be rid of him.
It’s unfortunate, but Trump voters are ultimately the ones to blame.
5. August 2019 at 15:29
What exactly is the difference between Coats and Ratcliffe? I don’t see any.
And Russia, and Syria, and Sudan, and Yemen, and Hungary, etc. I, for one, have never trusted the government. Where’ve you been?
Don’t be silly, Sumner. Trump does not “ignore advice”. Far from it.
https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1157010592898658304
5. August 2019 at 15:35
Harding,
Has it occurred to you that since you wanted this hateful idiot in the White House, that maybe you don’t know what you’re talking about? I’m genuinely curious.
5. August 2019 at 15:45
Harding, I hope you are joking, the thought that you are that dumb is depressing. Everyone in the room except Navarro opposed the tariff. They helped him draft the language to minimize the damage.
I’d suggest you stop getting your information from twitter.
5. August 2019 at 16:11
Cite?
It has occurred to me every day since April 2017. I am vehemently anti-Trump, and think a lot about my mistakes.
5. August 2019 at 16:27
I cannot blame anyone for being cynical about official statements from the US government.
However, there are many who suspect Beijing of weaponizing currency.
China is just getting started with using its currency as weapon in the trade war, analysts say—CNBC.
China Uses Currency as Weapon in Trade War, Rattling Markets—NYT
Of course, it is indisputable that the People’s Bank of China controls the exchange rate of the yuan in brackets that are set daily.
It may be Trump is again right, not that China manipulates currency (that is obvious, they always have), but rather that the Federal Reserve has been too tight and the dollar has been appreciating.
It is worth pondering that the Federal Reserve has been too tight and put that in combination with David Beckworths observation that 70% of global central banks are pegged to the Federal Reserve.
Indeed, a legitimate question is whether the Federal Reserve, by being too tight, has pushed the global economy to the brink of a recession.
By the way, Scott Sumner is 100% right that it is a lugubrious proposition that the Federal Reserve must now wait until its next meeting in order to change policy. Yet if it schedules a special meeting, it looks like the klaxons are ringing.
Perhaps the slowing global economy and stagnating equities markets are signaling that the world does not believe the major central banks have the ammo they need to stimulate the economy. Markets are saying that lower interest rates and QE are not enough, that they are ineffective or weak tea.
Possibly, Ben Bernanke was right when he advised Japan to go to money financed fiscal programs.
5. August 2019 at 16:37
Add on: there are a lot of reforms that could be suggested for the Federal Reserve.
One practical reform would be a Federal Reserve 2% inflation target…but as sacred, inviolable floor, not a ceiling!
Simple and effective.
5. August 2019 at 16:37
“Trump ignored the advice of almost all his policy people in announcing another 10% tariff on China”
Blog author is lying.
Spewing UNSOURCED fake news narrative.
If Trump imposed a 10% tariff, he would have done so at the recommendation of among the world’s top economists and policy advisors.
No, just because nobody called you to serve, doesn’t mean you’re any less inferior intellectually than they are.
What is the definition of psychological projection?
Blog author accuses others of what he himself is doing.
China IS INDEED A CURRENCY MANIPULATOR.
Tell us whether markets determine the US-Yuan exchange for Chinese business owners, or whether there is a ‘dirty float’, i.e. Chinese central bank setting their own Yuan ‘price’ for US dollars.
Why is the blog author having a blackout of the protests in Hong Kong?
Tyrannical mainlander puppets … nothing?
https://twitter.com/JanJekielek/status/1158120448829329409
5. August 2019 at 16:37
I wish my commenters would read reliable news sources, so I didn’t have to do the work for them:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-trump-ordered-new-chinese-tariffs-over-objections-of-advisers-11564912949
5. August 2019 at 16:48
Harding,
That was an unexpectedly honest and thoughtful reply. I hope you can be as honest and thoughtful while re-evaluating your racist beliefs. People everywhere are just people, for better and worse.
5. August 2019 at 18:54
OT but the question:
Are US Treasury yields headed towards Euro-Japan land? That is zero?
Given globalized capital markets, and secular trends, what would prevent US Treasury yields from equalizing with Euro-Japan?
5. August 2019 at 18:57
“Wall Street Journal”?
Same rag that pushed Russia collusion hoax for two straight years based on no evidence whatsoever according Mueller’s investigation?
Ok this is fun…let’s see the article’s NAMED SOURCES AND DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE.
“according to people familiar with the matter”
The blog author is asleep.
Believes ‘narratives’ that prey on his TDS…believes without seeing for himself.
Groupthink victim.
No wonder this blog is fact free.
Operation Mockingbird victim.
Awaken, ye sheep.
https://qanon.pub
5. August 2019 at 18:58
Michael Sandifer is a racist projecting his own racism onto E Harding.
5. August 2019 at 19:16
Michael Sandifer is a communist thought police syntax dictator.
No, it is not a logical necessity that supporting Trump is supporting racism. If you believe it is, you are asleep from a weapon of mass mind control the MSM, OP Mockingbird.
Obama legalized nation level power protection ‘propaganda’, i.e. fake news, fake stories, FALSE stories.
90% of all ‘news’ information controlled by 6 CEOs.
Blog author, you’re not even at this level of choice:
1. Believe ‘according to people familiar with the matter’ and don’t trust yourself to identify errors in the companies that are absolutely biased against Trump?; or
2. Trust only logic and evidence YOU SEE.
Don’t worry, whatever is true will remain true even if you take those few extra moments in
time TO READ THE ARTICLE, AND IDENTIFY AND CONFIRM THE SOURCES BY NAME AND DOCUMENTED FOR YOUR READERS REFERENCE, TO GIVE THEM THE COURTESY OF BEING ABLE TO AT LEAST SUSPEND JUDGMENT UNTIL ONE SEES THE EVIDENCE. TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES, KNOW WHAT IS TRUE, TO GIVE THEM THE APPRECIATION OF PROVIDING SOMETHING OTHER THAN A STORY WRITTEN IN THE NAME OF ‘PEOPLE FAMILIAR WITH THE MATTER’.
5. August 2019 at 20:13
‘according to people familiar with the matter’
This by the way is a documented fake news semantic to establish plausible deniability but not prevent a harmful fake story being published, totally legally thanks to psycho Democrat laws passed previously, and post it as truth.
How does it work? They are anticipating their own readers will not even care about confirming a ‘source’. As long as it catches most of their reader’s eyes for just a few minutes reading WSJ at the breakfast table, or in the subway, or train, planes or online at lunch, START WITH AN EYE GRABBING HEADLINE (fake claim)
Who has time to confirm sources?
News said so, must be true…
They lied to you and they continue to lie to everyone.
They know many will depend more on the name of the publication instead of the name(s) and source(s), and swallow that fake news and store it as ‘true’ in their minds.
Control the media, control the population.
Other fake news ‘source’ patterns used by MSM to trick their readers are:
“…according to sources familiar with the thinking of [target]”…then publish disparaging ‘report’ on [target]
“…officials tell us only under anonymity”
“…sources tell us…”
MSM IS A CONTROLLED ‘NARRATIVE’, THEY ARE THE PROPAGANDA ARM OF THE D PARTY.
I notice a pattern of shifting outrage narrative cycles…what will CNN teach their collapsed viewership this week? What should they be outraged about?
Mueller found no collusion…Adam Schitt claimed for a long time he has “smoking gun evidence”.
Pelosi parroted it.
Ergo…blog author was programmed to be outraged at Trump colluding with Russia…
Then…Trump completely and totally exonerated (no evidence per Mueller, that means presumption of innocence is maintained for an American citizen as we are all rightfully entitled to under the law).
The new narrative is Trump is a white supremacist (despite on video condemning white supremacy)
How does the MSM know?
They have ‘According to people familiar with the matter’!
Sheep!
6. August 2019 at 03:25
Pff, this is all too transparent.. Trump failed to repeal obamacare and failed to build a wall – the only thing left is the economy.. Somebody somewhere told him the business cycle is in the later stages so relying on it for 2020 is risky. And the Fed is annoyingly trying to calm the over-valued markets. So voila! Start a trade war, take the pain in the market, force the Fed to lower rates. Once in July isnt enough, twice to September might be, what the hell go for three I say.. Come Feb or March next year the trade war will mysteriously evaporate due to a deal (done already..?) and the low rates will light a fire under the snp 500. Ride the hot air to November, batter the Fed if they even look like doing more QT or raising rates – job done!
6. August 2019 at 03:31
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274538/51-mass-shooters-2019-were-black-only-29-were-daniel-greenfield
6. August 2019 at 05:31
I’m not justifying anything Trump does. However, I believe Christopher Balding provides evidence Huawei is a security threat, and I don’t believe your earlier posts on Balding convincingly disprove him. Would love to read your specific objections to this post. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3415726
6. August 2019 at 06:02
In 2005, the exchange rate was above 8.
It’s not like “currency manipulation” is any kind of free lunch anyway, since it reduces the purchasing power of the currency in question.
I bet Italy would have liked a little currency manipulation vis a vis Germany this century.
6. August 2019 at 06:44
It is too bad, but the comments are becoming as unreadable and unusable as MR’s (hard to believe, but MR once had extremely good comments). Not your fault Scott, just a rite of passage into becoming an apparently more mainstream economics blog. This blog also has the misfortune of being highly thought of in many highly online circles that also think highly of MR. The assessment is correct, but apparently these guys think that making bad comments on prestigious blogs helps persuade others of their position. Well, they might be right given that enough dummies didn’t see Trump’s massive trade mistakes coming 4 years ago.
6. August 2019 at 08:20
derek prefers the ‘prestigiousness’ of unsourced claims from ‘people familiar with the matter.’
i.e. fake stories that fit a pre-determined leftist narrative to divide the population.
“DIVORCED FROM THE FACTS”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dnc-lawsuit-trump-campaign-russia-wikileaks-hacking-dismissed
6. August 2019 at 08:27
“Trump failed to repeal obamacare and failed to build a wall”
bob doesn’t pay attention to world events either, prefers fake news narrative.
1. Trump as leader of the executive branch cannot unilaterally abolish Obamacare. He needs House and Senate to pass laws. If you consider failure to repeal an actual failure, blame Congress.
2. The wall is being built. If you paid attention you would have known the cabal compelled this all the way to the supreme court to have to clarify what many of us knew was perfectly legal since the start: https://www.apnews.com/5d893d388c254c7fa83a1570112ae90e
6. August 2019 at 08:32
Racist liberals don’t care at all about these shootings:
https://hannity.com/media-room/chicago-chaos-major-hospital-closes-doors-to-patients-after-51-shot-7-killed-during-deadly-weekend/
Doesn’t fit the fake news narrative of evil white males, the new enemy to replace “capitalists” in Marx’s class conflict worldview!
Thanks to the Frankfurt School
6. August 2019 at 08:33
Bob, If you plan to plagiarize me, don’t you think you ought to at least give me a citation?
https://www.themoneyillusion.com/trump-as-trickster/
Todd, It’s a given that China spies on the US, just as we spy on China, and on other nations. Indeed we even spy on our allies.
It’s a given that the Chinese security apparatus uses Chinese corporations where they might be useful, just as our security apparatus uses American corporations where they are useful. But I don’t see any evidence that Huawei is a security threat to the US. I am perfectly comfortable with the fact that China is spying on us. China is not our enemy.
The paper you linked to may be correct, but it’s allegations are basically unsupported by evidence that is publicly available. That might be unavoidable, but it’s hard for me to know how seriously to take that information. When I’ve seen Balding blog about topics that I do know something about, his information is unreliable. Maybe it’s reliable in this case, but I’d like to see the evidence.
derek, I’ve had these idiots before, they come and go.
6. August 2019 at 08:44
Even fake news Clinton News Network couldn’t spin what was uncovered about the Dayton shooter being a radical left terrorist:
https://i.imgur.com/HiZHoC9.jpg
“Pushed extreme left wing posts”
6. August 2019 at 08:46
Nobody has refuted anything I posted.
Only name calling and invectives to disparage.
When one cannot attack the message, attack the messenger! That is the modus operandi of left wing sheep such as the blog author
6. August 2019 at 09:04
Blog author pushes fake news narrative of shooters being ‘white nationalists’.
—————————————
https://www.statista.com/statistics/476456/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-race/
Total population estimate – 327 million
White population = 199,470,000 (327M * 0.61)
Black population = 39,240,000 (327M * 0.12)
Hispanic population = 58,860,000 (327M * 0.18)
Asian population = 19,620,000 (327M * 0.06)
Percentage of white population that are mass shooters – 0.0000003308768235824936% (66/199,470,000)
Percentage of black population that are mass shooters – 0.0000004841997961264016% (19/39,240,000)
Percentage of hispanic population that are mass shooters – 0.00000016989466530750933% (10/58,860,000)
Percentage of asian population that are mass shooters – 0.00000040774719673802243% (8/19,620000)
Mass shooters race as a percentage of the entire population, ranked –
0.0000004841997961264016 – blacks
0.0000004077471967380220 – asian
0.0000003308768235824936 – whites
0.0000001698946653075093 – hispanic
Left wing narrative is meant to divide the population in a particular way for purely political purposes. Capitalists vs. Proletariats is now Whites vs. Everyone the D’s mistreated.
Democrats formed the confederate states against freeing the slaves.
Democrats started the KKK.
6. August 2019 at 09:05
@George
Can you please condense your brilliance into a single post so the joy I get from reading your comments isn’t interrupted by having to wade through other readers’ posts?
6. August 2019 at 09:08
George, I disagree with the left on identity politics, immigration, healthcare, transfers to the underclass, Russiagate, etc. Nobody’s responding to your arguments because you’re coming off as nuts. That’s an ad hominem, yes, but you’ve given no indication you’re here to calmly engage on the merits of your positions, so why would the other commenters spend their limited time trying to engage you?
I’m not telling you what to do nor what to think, just pointing out the choices you’ve made thus far and their predictable consequences.
6. August 2019 at 09:12
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/06/by-naming-china-currency-manipulator-mnuchin-has-damaged-his-credibility/?noredirect=on
Larry Summers: “When a country intervenes in the foreign-exchange market to depress its currency so as to promote exports and discourage imports, something equivalent to imposing tariffs on imports and providing subsidies to exports is happening.”
Is this true? I’m having trouble imagining this in a supply/demand graph.
6. August 2019 at 11:11
I love how Harding links to a ZeroHedge tweet.
6. August 2019 at 11:16
https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/06/joaquin-castro-names-trump-donors/
Democrat party contains domestic terrorists.
Sitting congressmen doxxing people with the specific intent to cause them duress.
6. August 2019 at 11:21
… but I *REALLY* love how George links to Qanon. Ha! Your comments section just keeps getting better Scott! What was that about “Red Flag” laws Trump was mentioning the other day? Some people need to be committed against their will?
6. August 2019 at 11:27
myb6,
I don’t care about your personal political views. They do not get any points nor negatives.
Logic and facts rule.
I see some posters here as crazy and not deserving of what you’re suggesting I don’t deserve.
Nuts doesn’t even begin to describe what some people here believe.
I didn’t expect any rebuttals BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE ANY.
For example, the blog author, as proof his assertion that Trump “didn’t listen to his advisors” re: 10% tariff hike on China FOR RENEGING ON THEIR AGREEMENT TO BUY LOTS OF AGRICULTURE PRODUCT from America, cited an article where the sources were listed as “according to people familiar with the matter”.
Pause on that for just a moment.
The blog author, and his readers who no doubt have similar sheep like tendencies, are actually THINKING AS TRUE a story that they don’t even know whether is true or not, because they didn’t SEE who in fact said this and where their proof is.
This is what fake news has done to the ‘left’. The left are considered sheep even to the ruling leftists.
They KNOW that their sheep will WANT to believe a negative story about orange man.
Morons.
They deserve no respect from me, thank you very much.
6. August 2019 at 11:28
Not to stir up trouble, but lets stir up trouble: Harding, what do you make of George linking to FrontPage? FrontPage is run by (((them))) isn’t it?
6. August 2019 at 11:30
Tom Brown:
When you cannot attack the message, you attack the messenger.
You’re asleep.
Threatening messengers with jail because the words hurt your feelings?
I am better than you too.
6. August 2019 at 11:37
Facts matter
6. August 2019 at 12:03
George,
You’re looking at 1982 and dividing by modern population figures which is itself incorrect. Furthermore, nobody nationally is discussing shootings from 1982. Limit your analysis to the last ten years and you might have a point.
Beyond that, you seems to be missing the point; this isn’t a contest where each race stands around shouting “At least we’re aren’t as bad as you!” and the winner gets to wash their hands of all blame. No, this is an actual problem that we need to solve.
6. August 2019 at 12:03
Excuse me, I should have said 1982 – present
6. August 2019 at 12:37
“No, this is an actual problem that we need to solve.”
You think we’ll solve this problem? I’m not convinced. I’m a gun owner. I think they are fun toys. I have no illusions of fighting a tyrannical government with them. I don’t use them for hunting, or even home defense (I have a baseball bat for that, under my bed). My biggest worry is a kid will get into them, so I keep them locked up. I know I’m a responsible gun owner, but I’m not so sure about the rest of you. I think *I* should be allowed to own whatever weapons I want, but again, I’d prefer the rest of you were unarmed.
For me it’s a hobby. My hobby is special because nitwits have decided that I qualify as a “well regulated militia” and that “arms” means my Bushmaster semi-automatic M4 style carbine and my collection of high capacity detachable box magazines.
Now the gamers are upset because people like Trump and Republicans are pointing the finger at the games they love (again), saying they’re to blame. I used to play video games, but no more.
So it’s gun hobbyists against video game hobbyists. Unfortunately for the gamers there’s no constitutional amendment protecting their hobby because of bad legal interpretations by nitwits.
I think this comes down to a societal choice. Do I personally think my hobby is worth the trade off in lives if people other than me are allowed to participate in it? No. I’m willing to give up my hobby if that’s what we as a society decide is a rule that should apply to EVERYONE. It’s a hobby: it’s not that important. It’s really rather stupid that we allow average Joes like me to own huge force multipliers like that to begin with.
However, lots and lots of gun nuts out there are NOT willing to go there. They literally don’t care how many people die, they’re not giving up their precious hobby. They’ll claim the problem is mental health, gay marriage, video games or not enough Jesus in school. I.e. they’ll lie about it. The gun lobbyists are liars. They’ll say it’s not about hunting or home defense, it’s about protecting us from tyranny. Yet, if the shit hits the fan, I doubt most gut nut yokels will be protecting our constitution: they’ll be gunning down minorities in a race war, just like the El Paso shooter: paramilitary, extra-judicial killings to “protect freedom” (really, to stop the perceived “White Genocide”).
And how many people really die? What percentage of the population dies in mass shootings vs die from poor diets? Would it be more effective to mandate a change in diet rather than ban average Joes from owning huge force multipliers? Where in the constitution does it say “well regulated militias” can choose what to eat? It hardly matters, because we’re not going to go there either.
The gun culture is part of America, for better or worse (mostly worse), and it’s not going away any time soon.
6. August 2019 at 12:43
Sumner, that article doesn’t clearly say everyone in the room except Navarro opposed the tariffs. It says
6. August 2019 at 12:43
screwed up my formatting, but you get the gist.
6. August 2019 at 13:01
Great post, Tom Brown
6. August 2019 at 13:25
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1158691696596652032
The day a blind monkey (CNN) managed to find a banana.
6. August 2019 at 13:27
E. Harding:
“that article doesn’t clearly say everyone in the room except Navarro opposed the tariffs.”
That article clearly isn’t sourced by anyone real.
“according to people familiar with the matter” = FAKE NEWS
6. August 2019 at 13:44
Blog author remains SILENT:
https://twitter.com/ZoomingInSimone/status/1158838938477453312
6. August 2019 at 18:04
George is Major Freedom. It’s very sad to see you’ve replaced Rothbard for QAnon Major…. come back to posting about malinvestment!
6. August 2019 at 21:21
Garrett, No, that’s false. Summers should understand the difference.
Ben, I recall that Major Freedom was originally a sort of libertarian, but then became a right wing authoritarian nationalist. Lots of others made the same journey.
6. August 2019 at 23:44
RE Huawei as a security threat
What about the report that Huawei’s 5G equipment has shockingly bad security engineering? Was that fake news?
7. August 2019 at 01:07
Ha! My apologies, I really should catch up on your latest before espousing..
For the record I really do think trump and his ‘aides’ will continue with this path. Without wishing to go too near tin foil hat land, if he gets elected will his sights then fall on extending the term limit like Xi?
7. August 2019 at 03:41
Just in the last three days:
– @rezaaslan called to “eradicate” Kellyanne Conway
– @JoaquinCastrotx doxxed his retired constituents for donating to Trump
– @NicolleDWallace falsely stated that Trump wanted to exterminate Latinos
Who needs to tone down their rhetoric, exactly?
7. August 2019 at 03:45
Which NPC was it on this blog that claimed the El Paso shooter’s motivations were clear but the Dayton shooter’s was not?
https://twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1158921153542574082
“I want socialism, and I’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round understanding.”
Some fake news pundit on MSNBC just said Trump “wants to exterminate Latinos”.
This is the left wing rhetoric that incites violence that every sufferer of TDS here IGNORES.
7. August 2019 at 03:52
I just posted about this yesterday, today POTUS calls it out as well
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1159049603209158656
Left wing authoritarians like the blog author ignore Trump’s calls for unity and believes fake news leftist projection of their own racism
7. August 2019 at 03:58
BREAKING: ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING
55 shot, 5 people dead.
….
….
Oh woops my bad, that was the number shot and killed in gun controlled Chicago just last week. Mostly blacks killed.
Racist liberals can go back to not caring again and go back to orange man made some tweets as the blame for Antifa terrorist shootings.
7. August 2019 at 06:35
The same lying gaslighting media who spent 3 years convincing the gullible morons among us that they were seeing Russians everywhere have just replaced “Russia” with “racist.”
Nothing else has changed.
And the idiots are STILL believing them.
MSM = ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
7. August 2019 at 07:35
Scott,
While we all must take the pronouncements from any government with several grains of salt, it turns out that Huawei really is a national security threat… You don’t need to take the US government’s word for it. If you are willing to grab the firmware of several models of their equipment, and reverse engineer, you’ll see it.
Private companies like Facebook, Google, etc. hoover up metric tons of our personal data all the time…the Chinese government has the resources to do even more. At a time when they are implementing AI, facial recognition and billions of cameras, data storage devices, and computers for analysis of their own people’s actions, is it so hard to believe that they will grab data from around the world in order to collect intelligence?
Believing that China’s government is somehow more honest than our own, though, is emotions overruling thought. These people have been more than willing to kill than to face elections, or allow dissenting opinions. I’m fear that they will try to be cautious with Hong Kong, but in the end will put the hammer down if this unrest doesn’t stop. They can’t risk the rest of China getting any ideas.
7. August 2019 at 09:01
This is the leftist threats we face that I mentioned:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZurCzxqWfs
Sitting congressman doxxing Trump donors, KNOWING it will result in them being harassed and intimidated.
Imagine if this was a Republican congressman, posting the list of names of those who donated to the Hillary campaign, because that congressman knew (and hoped) that those donors will be harassed and possibly physically attacked.
The biggest threat are these radical left terrorists in DC.
7. August 2019 at 09:23
Almost the entire Democrat Party are controlled by puppet masters.
Look at this coordinated attack as if every D official suddenly came to the same conclusions all on their own?
https://twitter.com/STUinSD/status/1159144824727060480
They are pushing a pre-planned message to DIVIDE THE COUNTRY AS IT IS UNITING BEHIND TRUMP.
7. August 2019 at 09:42
Scott,
I’m glad to see the US Government is finally calling out China for being a “currency manipulator”. Now if the Fed could only learn to be an EFFECTIVE currency manipulator, maybe the United States could crawl out of this sub 2% inflation norm.
This is just all politics and politics has become such a winner take all game in the past 10 years that our internal political game play is now turning into international political game play where anything “we” disagree with is an existential threat and is evil.
Scott- start a new political party with Utilitarian foundations, I’d join.
7. August 2019 at 09:43
Also, if George reduced the number of posts he made by half I bet he’d have better luck of people maybe reading them…
7. August 2019 at 10:55
Fake News = Enemy of the People
https://i.imgur.com/np3D1cW.jpg
7. August 2019 at 12:14
Burgos, I don’t know and I don’t care.
George P. You said:
“Believing that China’s government is somehow more honest than our own, though, is emotions overruling thought. These people have been more than willing to kill than to face elections, or allow dissenting opinions. I’m fear that they will try to be cautious with Hong Kong, but in the end will put the hammer down if this unrest doesn’t stop. They can’t risk the rest of China getting any ideas.”
I agree, so what’s the point of your comment?
As far as Huawei being a security threat, I just don’t see it. Yes, China spies on us, as do many other countries. Does this spying undermine our national security? I don’t see how. Trump undermines our national security via his reckless behavior. China is not going to attack America or Japan or South Korea or our Nato allies. Where is the threat?
Tom M. If George only did one more post in his entire life, I still wouldn’t read it.
7. August 2019 at 12:37
Scott,
Your definition of security threat is absurd. If espionage is not a security threat, then nothing is a security threat. Pull yourself together for once.
I guess we must be glad that your wife is not Russian, otherwise you would tell us how dandy and harmless Russia is, how Russian espionage is not a risk, and how Russia is actually our friend.
7. August 2019 at 12:57
“If George only did one more post in his entire life, I still wouldn’t read it.”
Yes you will, just like you’ve been reading all of them until now.
And you’re reading this post too.
Now that that is the case,
“As far as Huawei being a security threat, I just don’t see it.”
That’s because, AGAIN, you’re a fake news sheep who is asleep to a controlled narrative.
Huawei is corrupt.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-announces-set-of-indictments-against-huawei-ahead-of-trade-talks-with-china-2019-01-28
“Yes, China spies on us, as do many other countries. Does this spying undermine our national security? I don’t see how. Trump undermines our national security via his reckless behavior.”
So Communist China that has been proven to be undermining our national security, it’s “I don’t see how”. Orange man bad is undermining our national security with “reckless behavior” not even bothering to indicate what exact “behavior” he did to undermine national security.
The blog author is without doubt a TDS suffering leftist sheep who believes lies are truth and truth is lies.
Op Mockingbird in front of everyone, right here on this site.
7. August 2019 at 13:04
Christian List:
Oh, you’re saying blog author has mainlander family and that’s why the denial of reality lest he offend?
That tells me the family are being unfair to the blog author. Making him feel guilty should he ever seriously criticize mainland China.
‘Approved think’ is always terrible on the mind. It corrodes and corrupts.
My wife is Asian, but we never have to walk on eggshells of not saying anything bad about people who happen to be of the same nationality. It would be offensive, to us, to not speak our minds.
I agree, this statement “Does this spying undermine our national security? I don’t see how.” is bats#!t insanity on steroids. Full fledged obliviousness.
7. August 2019 at 18:41
@ Tom M
RE a utilitarian political party in the USA, there is the Modern Whig party.
8. August 2019 at 05:11
It’s sad to say, but it did not even occur to me it was not a lie.
Derek—-that was rather unkind of you to lump me in with “Nero-George”. But I will take your comment under advisement.
8. August 2019 at 16:33
Christian, Sorry to remove you from your happy little bubble, but all countries spy, even the US. Russia also invades other countries, China does not (at least in recent decades.)
Why should I care if China spies on the US. Do you lose sleep over that fact?
8. August 2019 at 18:48
“Why should I care if China spies on the US. Do you lose sleep over that fact?”
Abso-freaking-clueless